For the next few days, the weather remained as hot as ever. Every time Lu Yuan went to the supermarket to buy water, he would see a group of villagers who were dying from the heat when he passed by a big tree nearby.
They either listlessly fanned themselves with fans, or climbed trees to get away from the crowd and hide in the foliage to cool off.
However, no one took the lead in fixing the transformer, which made Lu Yuan feel a chill in the relationship between people.
Ignoring them, I continued to collect water. Although the daily water supply was not much, it was enough for one person's daily drinking needs.
However, in such hot weather, without proper cooling equipment, drinking water will almost entirely turn into sweat, and you'll still be just as thirsty.
One day, Lu Yuan suddenly heard a commotion coming from not far outside his door. He went out and crossed the road in front of his door and saw a group of villagers walking towards the big tree at the entrance of the village. Each of them had a look of fear and curiosity on their face.
"What's going on?" Lu Yuan couldn't help but ask.
At this moment, a woman pointed with a look of disgust to the big tree not far away and said, "Around 8 o'clock, the supermarket manager was making a round and said that a family hadn't come to collect water for three days, so he came to check. Who knew that when he pushed open their door, he found that all three members of the family were dead inside the house. These people even put the bodies under the big tree. How can anyone find shade here!"
Following the direction the woman was pointing, Lu Yuan indeed saw several people wearing masks and gloves putting already decomposed corpses into body bags.
As soon as he stepped forward, Lu Yuan covered his mouth and nose, and a stench wafted over.
When those men put the body into the body bag, they left behind a lot of maggots on the ground, which was disgusting.
Seeing the crematorium vehicle take the body away, the villagers at the scene finally couldn't help but start talking about it.
“I know that family. They live in the house on the east side. They have a three-year-old child who cries all the time. I can hear him every time I pass by. A couple of days ago when I went by, I wondered why he was quiet. Oh! He’s so pitiful!”
"Yes! In this kind of weather, let alone children, even adults can't stand it, and no one from the neighborhood committee is taking the lead in fixing the electricity!"
"Who says otherwise! We pay so much in management fees, but they never do anything. They just play mahjong inside all day! I heard they even got a few generators!"
"This can't go on any longer! We have to find a way to restore the power! Or should we organize ourselves and try to get it back?"
So everyone started discussing it, and finally a result was reached: an old electrician was elected as the temporary supervisor.
After discussion, everyone decided to discuss the electricity issue with the power supply bureau. The cost of the transformer would be funded by everyone, with those who contributed more using more electricity and those who contributed less using less electricity!
The decision was agreed upon by everyone, so the old electrician began to raise funds with his team. To ensure the safety of the funds, the old electrician contacted the manager of the power company on the spot to inquire about the price.
Then they started collecting money like that, with your family paying 1,000 and theirs paying 5,000.
"Who is Lu Yuan in your household? Please have him come out!" The old electrician took out his notebook, looked through the resident list, and found Lu Yuan's information.
"It's me!" Lu Yuan put down the watermelon he was holding and ran out.
When he opened the door, a cool breeze immediately rushed into the house, and the people standing in the sun felt refreshed and wanted to go inside immediately.
Lu Yuan reached out and closed the door.
"Let's talk here!" To be honest, he didn't want these people to come in. After all, his house was so big and luxurious, with the air conditioning running 24 hours a day. No one could guarantee that they wouldn't have bad intentions after seeing them.
The old electrician nodded without saying anything, but the slightly younger middle-aged man behind him revealed a hint of greed on his face.
"Wow! They even have the air conditioning on at home! I can feel the cool breeze from far away!" The tone was filled with undisguised envy and jealousy.
“There are elderly people at home, so we got a diesel generator to generate electricity. You can buy one if you need it.” It’s not just Lu Yuan’s family that has a generator. Several villas in the vicinity have factories, and sometimes there are sudden power outages. They keep the generator for emergency use. Now that there’s a power outage, many families have brought their diesel generators home for their own use, which is not unusual.
The old electrician glanced at Lu Yuandao while holding his notebook and said, "Whether your family pays or not, it's to pool money to buy the generator!"
Lu Yuan had already heard about this, and he took out two thousand yuan from his pocket and handed it to the old electrician.
The old electrician frowned after borrowing the money and said, "Young man, two thousand yuan will only allow your family to use two hundred kilowatt-hours of electricity per month. That's not enough for such a big house!"
"It's alright! We still have a generator at home! The electricity is enough for now!" Lu Yuan has money, but he doesn't want to spend it on this kind of thing. After all, the electricity generated by the solar generator every day is more than enough. This money is just to shut these people up.
With a sigh, the old electrician wrote "Lu Yuan's family, two thousand" in his notebook.
Then the group moved on to the next house.
This method is quite good. In two days, all the residents have been visited and everyone has paid. One million has been raised. Of course, the bulk of the money came from the factory owners. With only a hundred or so households, it's simply not enough for them to raise one million. If one household contributes one thousand and another contributes three thousand, it's not enough.
So the power company arranged electricity insurance for the villagers. If the monthly electricity consumption exceeds the limit, the power will be cut off, and paying money won't help.
Three days later, people from the power bureau arrived at Zone 3 in a truck equipped with a crane, carrying a huge transformer. The installation was quickly completed thanks to the hard work of the staff.
Then the other person said "open the gate" on their phone, and suddenly the long-quiet Zone 3 was filled with the sounds of various electrical appliances starting up again.
Everyone cheered and went home, and the nearby villagers finally experienced the benefits of having electricity again.
When I opened my phone, I was greeted with all sorts of negative news.
Due to the severe drought caused by the high temperatures, many paddy fields have completely run out of water for irrigation. Even if the government wanted to divert water from nearby waters, it would be a drop in the ocean.
Drought-induced wildfires swept across the entire plains' agricultural areas.
"According to reports, spontaneous combustion of crops has occurred in many parts of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan provinces. The fires have spread throughout the plains, causing extensive damage to farmland and casualties. The government is working on establishing an emergency fire prevention plan! We hope that the general public will voluntarily harvest their crops to prevent fires from breaking out."
Watching the news on TV, Lu Yuan and his family sat on the sofa, feeling extremely anxious.
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